Writing about random topics

Spending in 2011 – how did I do?

One of the great things about Mint is how it tracks your spending. How did I do against my goals in 2011?

Pretty good!

Here’s the pie chart of where my money went (cash withdrawals are lumped into Other):

My goal in 2011 was to give more money to charity. I didn’t have a goal other than I wanted to give more. While it didn’t constitute 10% of my income, it did comprise 10% of my spending.

The problem is that Gifts – to people – is lumped into charitable donations. That overstated my charitable giving which I don’t like. I may have to find another category to toss Gifts into.

The good news here is that Charity and Gifts were my third largest expense! I guess that shows where my priorities are.

Speaking of my priorities, Travel was my #2 expense. However, business travel was lumped into that, and that things.

Housing was my #1 cost which is no surprise, and Taxes (property tax) should be tossed into this. The problem with housing is that it never goes down in price. Except for me in 2012 because it will go down in price for a couple of reasons:

1) I won’t have to pay to exercise an escape clause from renting my apartment.

2) I won’t have to pay to have the roof of my condo redone since I already paid it in 2011.

The bulk of the remainder of my expenses were wedding expenses, health care costs and transportation. There’s not a lot I can do about those.

Overall, my spending in 2011 was pretty good. There’s some room for improvement but I have plans to work on them.